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[Isa]

For me a triple combo would be Baroque, DeSPIRIA, and Megami Tensei the OG stuff. Baroque in particular just captures my attention and wish we could get it easily on modern hardware(yes I know emulation exists and is really the only way to play them for westerners save for the PS2/Wii game. I also love DeSPIRIA for its wild look and story. I guess Kowloon's Gate is kind of like it which is cool.

 

[Felessan]

Non-videogames universes (MW, WH, DnD FR, DC/Marvel etc) doesn't count

The biggest/deepest gaming universe probably Warcraft

Souls are small and shallow, but you can't expect it to be really big in SP games (if it's not 20years series like Kiseki), they are too small for that

 

[Signalis]

Warhammer judging from the lenght of video trying to explain the lore.

Great video, but that was 6 hours of AI slop

 

[deriks]

Probably Dark Souls

I read and read and it's too much. Way too much

 

[SnapShot]

 

[ZeroZeroQuatre]

Pac-man

You're joking, but since Namco released the Shadow Labyrinth game this year, Pac-Man is now officially connected to the UGSF lore :

The United Galaxy Space Force (銀河連邦宇宙軍 Gin Kawatsura Kuni Uchuugun, lit. United Galaxy Space Force), or UGSF for short, is a fictional military organization dedicated to advancing the goals and interests of the human population living in outer space. The UGSF first appeared in Galaxian3, in which they launch an operation to stop an Unknown Mechanized Intelligent Species (UIMS) from destroying the Earth. Future games like Star Ixiom would flesh out the UGSF and expand upon the lore of its universe. The events that occur within the UGSF universe are depicted across multiple Namco games, ranging from older classics such as Galaxian, Galaga, and Dig Dug, to more recent titles including Mr. Driller and Mizuiro Blood. Most of the games that take place in the UGSF universe are listed on the UGSF timeline, which organizes important in-universe events in chronological order. Source : https://namco.fandom.com/wiki/United_Galaxy_Space_Force

Basically connecting it to over 30 games, going back all the way to Galaxian (1979), and including other games such as Dig Dug (1982), Mr. Driller (1999) and Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere (1999).

And the official page with the full time-line : https://ugsf-series.com/en/

 

[Ishma3L]

Xenogears

 

[Felessan]

Warhammer judging from the lenght of video trying to explain the lore.

Baldurs gate (Forgotten realms) are no smaller
But those are tabletop universes with 40+ years of history and a lots of books. Even MMO where 1 expansion is similar in size to whole SP game world-building wise, are small comparably. They are just not that wide or old.

 

[Paasei]

Fallout
The Witcher
Elder Scrolls
Dark Souls

 

[Hanzaki]

The deepest is the Elder Scrolls obviously with hundreds of years of history and lore with multiple games and stuff. Or maybe Warhammer good candidate too.

I can see that many people here are mixes the game story with the game lore...

 

[Von Hugh]

Since Warhammer is cheating: Warcraft

 

[Diseased Yak]

All of the obvious games have been mentioned, so I'll add this that I haven't seen yet:

Hell Is Us

Sure, it just came out this year, but man they really went all in on some crazy ass lore! I'm still knee-deep in the game, just taking my time and soaking it up.

 

[darth.shrimp]

Grim Dawn's lore doesn't look like much at first, but the world building is incredible. It feels like a mix of Warhammer and Lovecraft, some of the lore notes sound straight from a novel.

I'm not even joking - the next expansion might add an entire new, huge area, a new mastery, new mechanics etc, but I'm almost more interested in what new lore it will bring to the world.

 

[DaciaJC]

If Warhammer doesn't count, then I'd have to give it to The Elder Scrolls. I've only played Skyrim, but I remember spending some time digging through the lore wiki and, yeah, "crazy" barely scratches the surface.

 

[DeepEnigma]

If you consider the books, Halo's lore is pretty incredible

I loved Halo until they introduced those stupid space monkey things. Such an uninspiring design.

 

[Foxt3r]

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

Trails
Xenoblade Chronicles
Xenosaga Trilogy
Xenogears
Chrono
Suikoden

Mass Effect
The Witcher

 

[WoJ]

Suikoden

Man this one hurts. So much great stuff from the first five games in this series. Around 2005 this series basically overtook Final Fantasy as my favorite RPG series because of the lore. I still get sad knowing we will never see Yuber and Pesmerga play through to the end.

 

[ScHlAuChi]

Ok, I´m gonna cheat a little by picking:
The Immortals of Terra: A Perry Rhodan Adventure

Perry Rhodan is a series that has been in publication since 1961, and is the largest continuous series/universe ever created.
There is currently 3356 issues with over 300000 pages of written literature. (Not including spinoffs)
The series is so gigantic that it doesnt have just cycles, it has grand cycles lasting hundreds of issues.
There is more than 5000 books (this includes spinoffs) for that series, more than 10 times the amount that exist for Warhammer 40k!

This series is larger than every single series mentioned so far in this thread - combined!
If you started reading the series today doing 100 pages per day you would need more than 8 years just to catch up to the current cycle!

 

[Shubh_C63]

Youtube is stalking me. Showed up in my recommendations.

 

[Hudo]

Xenogears

This game fucks.

 

[Comfortgel]

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Shinji Ikari Raising Project / Neon Genesis Evangelion: Girlfriend of Steel

There.

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

Man this one hurts. So much great stuff from the first five games in this series. Around 2005 this series basically overtook Final Fantasy as my favorite RPG series because of the lore. I still get sad knowing we will never see Yuber and Pesmerga play through to the end.

I know Suikoden III is divisive but that's my favorite due to that game being the first game I played in that franchise. Not only that they contunied the story from the first two games and we will never get a proper continuation of the story due to the creator leaving Konami back. It's sad he died so young too. I had my issues with Eiyuden Chronicles and still prefer Suikoden but that spiritual successor was still a good game

I noticed that after he left Konami, all the entries that came after the third game were all just prequels

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

Gravity Rush features time travel and handles physics beautifully, and its story is profound.

 

[Sand Dan Glokta]

Gravity Rush features time travel and handles physics beautifully, and its story is profound.

Any other suggestions?

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

Any other suggestions?

Chrono trigger

 

[dezzy8]

Killzone

 

[saintjules]

Xenogears

 

[Fahdis]

Ace Combat
Killzone
Soul Calibur
Elder Scrolls
Halo

 

[IAmRei]

The craziest thing I can remember recently is the Xenoblade series.
I have never seen anything else that comes close, and I have played a lot of both Western and Japanese RPGs.
Shin Megami also comes in at a close second for the craziest stories in RPGs, especially Nocturne and Strange Journey.
Well, if you're familiar with a lot of JRPGs in untranslated areas, I've seen some of them have crazy stories as well.

SIlent Hill, Resident Evil also comes in my mind

for western side, I like mass effect, albeit with with some plot holes, but I like the whole concept. mostly comes from RPG IMO.
deus ex HR is my favorite at the time, with mind boggling ideas in scifi.

 

[Setsuna Mudou]

anything other than D&D means it's the wrong answer to the question

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

Yokai Watch is another series I consider to have deep lore

 

[P:axMagellanic]

Elder scrolls. It's own blend of historicity and metaphysics, and a franchise born of gaming.

 

[Gp1]

Warhammer judging from the length of video trying to explain the lore.

anything other than D&D means it's the wrong answer to the question

Great video, but that was 6 hours of AI slop

Since Perry Rhodan IS cheating, because the game kinda sucks ...

If we're considering the deepest lore the sheer number of content is impossible to compete with D&D 50 years universe with it's innumerous different worlds, settings etc.
If we're considering the deepest lore one single unified universe then probably Warhammer wins.

At the same time, this is the kind of granularity we get when we talk about BattleTech. (and this isn't AI slop)

One video narrating 35 years in one of the most important events in the universe (equivalent IRL to the fall of Rome).


Video trying to explain just one succession war in BT (which is basically what happened after the last video). There are five of these. And about two to three dozen events on the same scale of importance.


A video detailing just 1 (out of 650-700) Mechs in the universe.


The entire universe is some sort of Sci-fi Tom Clancy with Jane's encyclopedia level of detail on the military hardware, formation, commanders etc.

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

Bonus question: Which porn/hentai game IP has the craziest/deepest lore?

 

[darth.shrimp]

Bonus question: Which porn/hentai game IP has the craziest/deepest lore?

Probably Triangle Heart, given it evolved into the entire Nanoha franchise. Haven't played it though (and the ones I did "play" didn't really have any lore to speak of, although some had interesting stories).

 

[grvg]

I think I'll throw my hat in the ring as another ff14 vote

 

[tylrdiablos]

Since Warhammer is cheating: Warcraft

I've spent many hours looking at sites like WoW-Wiki and enjoying WoW's back-stories.
I'm a fan of Raymond E. Feist/fantasy novels so this WoW stuff is fun and interesting to consume.

 

[Corian33]

Mechwarrior/Battletech

If counting all the novels and various sourcebooks of the tabletop game. Not only does it have a galaxy full of factions and characters and mercenary groups and so on, those things are actually all tied together by a shared timeline, unlike Warhammer 40k which uses the excuse that the Imperium is so big that it doesn't matter what happens in any one place.

The Battletech universe also moves its timeline forward on a regular basis bringing in entirely new mechs/factions but also fresh variants of existing units. There's high tech eras and very low tech. All tied to a story with endless space opera political machinations and drama.

 

[RaduN]

Crazy? Original? Deep lore?
Death Stranding is the only answer. The perfect genre blend i never knew i needed.